Holland Visit

During October half term 2009 the St Neots Management Committee went on a residential to the Netherlands. The trip began with an early start with the group leaving St Neots at 4am!

The flight from Stansted took us to Weeze in Germany where we were met by our bus driver Peter. From we drove to Groesbeek (Netherlands) where we had a guided tour around the National Liberation Museum. The tour included a short film about Anne Franks life with extracts from her diary, a tour around the museum, a visit into the ‘Dome of Honour’ and ask our tour guide questions. From here we departed to go to our youth hostel in Doorwerth.

The following day we visited a museum in which the group would experience what it was like to be blind. Activities included being blind folded hand playing games such connect four and noughts and crosses and writing in brail. In addition to this the group took part in what the museum called The Blind Experience. The group were all given a stick and instructed to leave all watches, phones or anything would light up. The group were then taken into a room that was completely pitch black, there was no light at all!

In the room they were guided round by a guide whom themselves was blind. The group experienced real life situations of what it was like to be blind. This description cannot do justice to the impact the experience had on the young people and staff.

Our next visit was to Burger Zoo in Arnhem, here we say a wide variety of animals. The zoo was huge with lots to see and do. From Here we proceeded to go swimming. This gave a chance for all to relax a little more and have some fun in the water.

On our final day we travelled to Nijmegen to walk along the banks and visit the local market. We did a little shopping and got some souvenirs and lunch. Our final visit would take us from Groesbeek (Netherlands) to Kranenberg (Germany). However, this would be a conventional form of travel for us. We travelled to from Groesbeek to Kranenberg by Pedal Train. The train, however, was not powered by an engine it had to be powered by leg power! There were four sets of pedal at the end of the train, and we took it turns to pedal and get us to Kranenberg (Germany).

While in Kranenberg we had a stroll around the local village and looked at the architecture before jumping back on the pedal train and heading back to Groesbeek where we all got back on the bus to head straight to the airport to go home.